My midwife informed me this morning that my last two rounds of bloodwork show mild, but worsening anemia. She does *not* want to put me on iron supplements because of nausea. (I wasn't even able to take prental vitamins during the second half of the first trimester and am still on Zofran to control 24/7 morning sickness). BUT she said I've got to start loading up on iron-rich foods.



I've been craving and eating a lot of salad greens and clementines lately, so I'm getting a decent amount of dark green veggies coupled with Vitamin C. Beyond that, I'm not sure what to add.



I can't deal with the smell of "strong" vegetables (i.e. brussel sprouts) right now or the texture of eggs/tofu. In fact, all soy products have a tendency to come back. Beans/lentils sound good, but I'm supposed to be sticking to bland, easily digested foods and am not sure whether those qualify on that front.



Any suggestions?



(There is a nutrition department on post, but since the nutritionist who did my initial prenatal consult wasn't aware that soy milk contained calcium and wasn't sure whether psyllium was as good a source of fiber as Metamucil, I'd prefer not to get any more advice from them. ...)

probably not much help, but could you handle brussel sprouts raw, shredded into salad? i find they're way less offensive to the nose like that- they just smell mildly peppery when they haven't been cooked to death.

Could you stand some blackstrap molasses? Make maybe a molasses gingerbread to munch on. Iron + Ginger for belly. How about oatmeal or cream of wheat? You can make them with rice milk to boost the calcium in them, and they're both high in iron. So are most fortified cereals. Munching on something like dry cheerios might be bland and helpful. How about Quinoa? That's another really nutritious, albeit fairly flavorless food.



Zofran is awesome. I've been taking it for other nausea problems. So are Relief Bands (www.reliefband.com) but anytime I suggest that to people with morning sickness they think I'm crazy and say I'm trying to electrocute them.

Weird I typed out a whole rsponse to this like and hour ago and it's gone. But I said a lot of what Rabid_Child said so I'll just add few other things.



I've heard that significantly increasing vitamin C intake can help in absorbtion. High doses of vitamin C at each meal that contains iron (like lunch and dinner) should help greatly but it does take time. Could you take a supplement for vitamin C without becoming too nauseus? The other thing to watch out for are iron inhibitors such as dairy, coffe, tea etc. Make sure you are not consuming those when you are eating iron rich foods.



Good luck and I hope you feel better



Edited cause I forgot to say that you might consider getting a cast iron skillet. It does add some iron to whatever you cook in it which is pretty cool. I love mine and use it alot. Stuff just cooks better and it can go in the oven.

I'll try shredding. I'd wondered about throwing brocolli into a soy protein/fruit shake to hide the taste.



As for blackstrap molasses, I actually ordered a quart last week to make some molasses-raisin cookies hubby likes. Maybe he'll have to share. ;-) Oatmeal works pretty well these days. Cream of wheat is a no-go.



As for Vitamin C, I'm wondering whether I really need a supplement. My whole foods liquid prenatal supplement has 150 mg, plus I'm drinking at least two six ounce glasses of O.J. a day and usually eating a couple of clementines as well. I was thinking of just moving the juice to lunch/dinner.



Caffeine shouldn't be an issue. I was a coffee-holic before I got pregnant, but have had only two cups the entire time since I found out I was pregnant. I've had hot tea a little more often, but probably not more than a couple of times a month.



As for a cast iron skillet, that's actually on my want list. But do I need to get a pre-seasoned or unseasoned one? I'd put a pre-seasoned one in my Amazon.com shopping cart before getting results from the bloodwork, but am thinking I once heard that the coating used during the pre-seasoned prevents the absorption of iton into the food???

you can season it yourself, but i typically buy my cast iron skillets at garage sales and the like so that they're seasoned.



they're not difficult to season, and a good vegan way to do it is with coconut oil. one bought "preseasoned" will likely have been seasoned with meat and a variety of other things.



buying a new one, you just rub a layer of coconut oil in it before you use it, and then after it cools, you rub it with coconut oil again. and that's it. nothing to it.



oh, and i woulnd't buy one that is "new" and "preseasoned" because it is a chemical process and it does inhibit the iron. so get one that isn't, if you're buying new, and season it yourself.

oh, and also consider infusions such as nettle and oatstraw.

oh, and beans/lentils do qualify as "bland."

Lentils are not generally hard to digest.

Thanks for the input! :-) Just dumped today's food into Babyfit.com and found out I'd gotten in 143% of the RDA of iron. Still a bit on the low side, as you're supposed to consume 140-180% when you're pregnant, but my prenatal supplement will add another 22%. The doctor's given me four weeks to try to get levels back up naturally, so here's hoping it works!

You can get an unseasoned skillet at camping stores or good cooking supply stores. I highly suggest it. As for the vitaim C, it's water soluable and makes a big difference. I know you're getting lots of vitamin C already but more won't hurt you. There was a podcast on compassionatecooks.com all about iron and you might find some seriously helpful information there. She talks about an underdeveloped country where the children were all severely anemic (there are difefrent degrees) and they gave the children almost 400mg at every meal containing iron. Usually lunch and dinner. I don't believe they even changed their diets. After a few weeks their iron levels came up significantly. One thing to rememeber is that iron stores can be lower in veg*ns but that isn't neccessarily a bad thing.

if you cant take prenatal vitamins because of morning sickness, try eating some oatmeal before taking them...thats what i did, and it worked pretty well.